This invention is described as applied to an 18-pole ceiling fan motor because that motor presents the problems solved by the present invention in particularly concrete form to those skilled in the art, but the invention has application to other dynamo-electric machines as well.
In producing multi-pole motors, particularly eighteen pole multi-speed reversible ceiling fan motors with low current draw, for example 100 watts at 100 v., there are many problems related to the loading of the stator coils into the stator slots and the fineness of the wire used (e.g., No. 31 wire) in commercial practice. Conventionally, individual coils are wound and loaded onto a transfer tool or directly onto an axial coil injection machine. This is labor intensive and expensive. There are available machines, primarily developed for the European washing machine motor in which the stator is constructed with a high polarity section of either 12, 16 or 18 poles, in which a large circular skein coil is formed into a wave pattern and transferred directly into inserter tooling. Machines of this sort are produced by Essex Machinery & Terminals Division of United Technologies International. Such a machine is described in Appliance Manufacture, October, 1978, under the title "A `Winding` Path into Italian Territory." These machines, though excellent, are very complex and expensive.
One of the objects of this invention is to provide a coil forming machine and method, using a skein winding technique, by which at least as many stators can be produced per shift as by machines and methods known heretofore, at several orders of magnitude less cost.
Another object is to provide such a machine that is simple, rugged, easy to use and dependable.
Other objects will become apparent to those skilled in the art in the light of the following description and accompanying drawing.